


Reunion

by gaygreekgladiator (ama)



Series: Take it Easy [2]
Category: Spartacus Series (TV)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-19
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 12:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/849457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ama/pseuds/gaygreekgladiator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barca hasn't seen Pietros in five months. He looks good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt for the timestamp meme; zeldafaulkner asked for half a year after "A Flash of That Smile." Enjoy!

It was early September, and Barca had just finished a game of one-on-one with Crixus; normally, Crixus’s experience gave him a heavy advantage, but basketball was the one game where they were pretty evenly matched, because Crixus was tiny. So he was feeling pretty good about himself. He swept his hair off the back of his neck and pulled it into a fresh ponytail, then sat down on a bench as he caught his breath. Crixus was going to meet Naevia for a lunch date.

He surveyed the park serenely. It was a beautiful day, sunny, with a faint breeze that blew off some of the heat. He was just thinking of going to lunch when he saw him.

Pietros was sitting at one of the picnic tables, deeply absorbed in a book. Occasionally he paused to scribble something down in a notebook. He looked… good. He had gained a few pounds, grew out his hair a bit, and was wearing a golden-yellow shirt that brought out the warmth of his skin. Barca sat there for a few minutes, watching him and trying to calm the irrationally frantic pace of his heart.

Finally he stood and strolled over. He dropped into the seat next to Pietros, resting his elbows against the table.

“You look studious.”

Pietros jumped, but immediately broke into a smile.

“You don’t.”

“Classes just started; even I’m not cruel enough to assign a paper the first week.”

“So you bury your students in homework that you don’t have to spend the weekend grading. Clever.”

Barca chuckled. There had always been a kind of squirrely diffidence in Pietros’s attitude when he made jokes like that before; that was gone. Barca wanted very badly to kiss him, but he kept his voice casual.

“What are you studying?”

“Literature for Children. I get to reread all my childhood favorites and then absolutely ruin them with scholarly analysis. Should be fun.”

“Mm.”

They fell into a comfortable silence. Pietros went back to his textbook, and Barca went back to staring at him.

“How was your summer?” he asked abruptly.

“Very good, thanks. I got a navel piercing, two jobs, and three roommates. You?”

“Good,” Barca said, after a slight pause while he tried to wrap his head around “navel piercing” and then to banish it from his head before he embarrassed himself. “Nothing that exciting.”

“Good.”

Another pause. Unconsciously, Pietros bit his lip as he was reading and Barca cleared his throat.

“Have you—”

“I was going to call you,” Pietros interrupted. He looked up with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. “But I was busy. New apartment, new city, new college, two new jobs. I’ve had a lot on my plate.”

“Oh. Yeah, I figured you would. I didn’t mean—I mean, I didn’t really expect anything.”

“No? You didn’t—I don’t know—come over here to soothe your ego? Make sure I hadn’t changed my mind?”

There was a challenge in his eyes, and Barca grinned slowly to himself.

“No,” he said softly, holding Pietros’s gaze. “I came over to ask you to lunch.”

Pietros sat there for a moment without saying anything. His smile was dazzling. Then he put his book down, and very deliberately wrapped his arms around Barca’s neck, the sunlight dancing across his eyelashes.


End file.
